Top Industries

Select cycle:

Most members of Congress get the bulk of their campaign contributions from two main sources: the industries that make up the economic base of their home district and the Washington-based interest groups that pay more attention to the member's committee assignments in Congress. In addition, most Democrats receive substantial sums from labor unions. + Read more

From this table, you can get a flavor of which are the top industries giving to the candidates running for Congress in your district. Do the industries match your local economy, or are they more Washington-based? If the latter, the candidate may have divided loyalties on issues where the interests of their cash constituents conflict with those of the voters who elected them.

Mark Kirk (R)

Industry

Total

Retired

$252,150

Real Estate

$101,300

Securities & Investment

$100,500

Health Professionals

$95,204

Lawyers/Law Firms

$67,200

Pharmaceuticals/Health Products

$66,500

Misc Manufacturing & Distributing

$61,400

Business Services

$45,600

Misc Finance

$42,300

Pro-Israel

$41,210

General Contractors

$39,150

Insurance

$32,350

Lobbyists

$28,914

Special Trade Contractors

$28,700

Commercial Banks

$28,675

Leadership PACs

$27,000

Retail Sales

$26,750

Home Builders

$21,500

Beer, Wine & Liquor

$18,100

Chemical & Related Manufacturing

$17,750

Lee Goodman (D)

Industry

Total

Education

$8,650

Lawyers/Law Firms

$7,200

Securities & Investment

$5,500

Democratic/Liberal

$5,000

Retired

$3,500

Health Professionals

$3,240

Printing & Publishing

$2,250

Food & Beverage

$1,873

Business Services

$1,000

Commercial Banks

$1,000

Industrial Unions

$1,000

Other

$750

Misc Business

$750

Civil Servants/Public Officials

$500

Public Sector Unions

$500

Real Estate

$250

Insurance

$250

Retail Sales

$250

Chemical & Related Manufacturing

$250

TV/Movies/Music

$250

NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2016-2017 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically on September 15, 2013.
("Help! The numbers don't add up...")

WHY DON'T THE NUMBERS ADD UP?

Sometimes it's hard to make apple-to-apple comparisons across some of the pages in a candidate's
profile. Here's why:

Summary numbers - specifically "Total Raised and Spent" and "PAC/Individual Split" - are
based on summary reports filed by the candidates with the Federal Election Commission. All other numbers in
these profiles ("Quality of Disclosure," "Geography" and "Special Interests") are derived from detailed FEC
reports that itemize all contributions of $200 or more.

There is also a time lag in posting the information. While summary numbers are reported almost
immediately by the FEC -- and listed quickly on OpenSecrets -- processing and analyzing the detailed records
takes much longer. For that reason, summary numbers are usually higher (and more current) than the numbers based
on detailed records.

HOW CURRENT ARE THESE FIGURES?

The figures in these profiles are taken from databases uploaded by the FEC to the internet on
the first day of every month. Those databases are only as current as the FEC has been able to compile by that
date (see the note above about lag times for data entry).

The Center updates figures for "Total Raised and Spent" and for "PAC/Individual Split" a few
days after the first of the month. The remaining figures - based on detailed contribution data - is updated
by the Center after the 20th of every month. This gives us time to analyze the contributions and categorize
them by industry and interest group.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the
Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses,
such as textbooks, contact the Center: info[at]crp.org

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